Email: Alex Cornell

Dear Friends, Family and Partners in mission,

Baby Rodrigo with his mother, Raquel.

Baby Rodrigo was born at about 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 7. He was born two weeks early, weighing only about 5 pounds. However, after staying in the hospital with his mother Raquel (a member of my host family) for a few days, he was released, perfectly normal and healthy. Raquel is now home every day instead of at work, so there’s a little more activity around the house. There’s not too much more activity, however, because Rodrigo doesn’t really do much besides sleep, eat, and dirty his diapers. I try to help out Raquel by pitching in with the housecleaning chores that she now has significantly less time to complete. I’m also helping prepare the room that will soon be Rodrigo’s bedroom and nursery.

Last week the room preparation project involved making a trip with Javier (Raquel’s husband and Rodrigo’s father) to Mega Plaza. Mega Plaza is a large shopping mall and commercial center on the northern side of Lima. Being there feels exactly like being in any major shopping mall in the United States. There is a large food court with restaurants like KFC, McDonald’s and Burger King. There is a huge movie theater. There is a merry-go-round and several other carnival-type rides for children. Positioned in the middle of the mall’s concourses are new cars with contests that advertise how to win them. And of course, there are people. Lots of people. The ordinary Tuesday evening that I spent there with Javier felt like the height of the Christmas season in a U.S. mall.

But what’s remarkable to me about Mega Plaza isn’t its crowdedness or its similarity to U.S. shopping centers, but its location. It’s not south of downtown in Lima’s wealthy financial and tourism districts, where all of the other fancy U.S.-type shopping centers and restaurants are. It’s located in Lima’s cono norte (“northern cone,” that is, all the neighborhoods that stretch out north of the middle- and upper-class areas in the city center). It’s only about a 35 minute bus ride from my house. The cono norte is the fastest growing part of the city, not only because of high birth rates, but also due to internal migration from the extremely impoverished rural areas of Peru. However, many of those poor migrants quickly learn that there is little work to be found in Lima. Thus the cono norte is characterized by high poverty, unemployment, underemployment, and an informal economy that includes family-owned shops run out of the home, street venders, and unofficial taxi drivers.

That evening, as I walked on a slick tiled floor through the aisles of Sodimac (a Peruvian home-improvement chain nearly identical to Lowe’s or Home Depot) surrounded by an endless supply of mass-produced light fixtures, plywood, and power tools (much of them imported), I couldn’t help but think about how sharply that environment contrasts with the rest of the cono norte. Just a few blocks outside of the tall iron fence that forms the perimeter of Mega Plaza are the neighborhood open-air markets that can be found in every working-class district of  Lima and in Peru’s small towns and villages. Despite the allure of bright lights and sophistication that Mega Plaza offers, most people still do their shopping in the neighborhood markets. By mid-morning every day, the open-air markets are even more crowded than the mall. In contrast to the uniformed employees that work the checkout lanes of Mega Plaza’s stores, with electronic product scanners and cash registers, the street market venders sit at their food stands underneath the shade of makeshift awnings, calling out the names and (suggested) prices of the fruits and vegetables they have to sell that day. They shoo flies away from the merchandise and occasionally ask their neighbors to occupy their stalls for a few minutes as they rush to pick up their children from school or grab something to eat from a nearby food stand. Others sit on tarps among the piles of new (or slightly used) sandals, shoes, and socks that they’re selling. Meanwhile, scores of dogs mill about, feeding on food scraps that have fallen on the ground. Other venders walk through the masses carrying what they're selling—everything from garbage bags to kitchen knives to magic markers—while “advertising” loudly with their vocal cords.

The clash and combination of “traditional” with “modern” economies and cultures in Lima’s cono norte has been an important, fascinating theme during my YAV year. One day I feel “right at home” eating a McDonald’s hamburger and french fries. The next, I’m eating pachamanca, a dish from Peru’s highland region that is traditionally prepared in an oven made out of a hole in the ground. Many of Lima’s youth watch North American TV shows like “Family Guy” and spend time in Internet cafes playing online computer games like “Warcraft.” But the same kids might have parents or grandparents who still speak Quechua, the traditional language of Peru’s indigenous population. Some mothers wear name brand-name tee-shirts while carrying their babies on their backs with traditional mantas. While such contrasts between the “modern” and “traditional” can surely be found in large urban areas all over the world, I have never seen it exhibited so strikingly as in Lima.

I won’t pretend to understand or analyze or judge the structure of Peru’s formal and informal economies. Occasionally, I am hesitantly hopeful about the direction in which Peru is going, because many people here seem enthusiastic that the expansion of U.S.-style malls, restaurants, and big box stores (like Peru’s versions of Wal-Mart and Target) signifies better employment and a higher standard of living for Lima’s general population. At the same time, I have been amazed by the creativity and resilient entrepreneurial spirit among people here who are determined to earn a decent living any way they can within the informal economy. From my perspective, the operation of the individual- and family-owned businesses in neighborhood markets creates social relationships and a personal touch that can never be duplicated by large corporate stores.

As Peru’s economy and societal structure continues to “modernize” at breakneck speed due to globalization, I wonder what the Lima of baby Rodrigo’s adulthood will look like. I’m sure the Lima in which he will attend school and eventually find a job will be much different than it is today. Meanwhile, I am struggling to understand how this process of globalization works and what role I and the church have to play in it. And finally, where do we hear the voice of God in all of this?

With Peace,

PS: Learn more about what I’m doing on my blog.